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Thanks to your support, Big Green Purse is firing people up all over the country! Recent features include the front page of the Arizona Republic, an excerpt in Family Circle, a segment on CSPAN's Book TV, and a podcast on U.S. News and World Report. Plus, this week we're partnering with The Home Depot's Eco-Options program and Good Day USA, one of the country's largest syndicated radio shows, to reach millions of people with our green shopping and lifestyle tips.

We've already broken into the "Top Ten" on Amazon.com's list of eco-books. Will you help us make the Top Ten of Amazon's entire list? Please us e this form to urge at least ten of your friends to get their own copy of the Big Green Purse book. Then stand-by: we'll let you know as soon as we make it to the top of the top! Thanks so much.

By the way, we know you love Big Green Purse. But as an added incentive, the person who forwards this message to the most friends and acquaintances will receive the newest Brita faucet-mount water filter, plus a personal phone consultation with me, Diane MacEachern, the author of Big Green Purse.
black cat
My cat Midnight has been suffering the last few years from an over-active thyroid. The vet could never tell me what might have caused her condition. A new study suggests that pets like mine and maybe yours are being contaminated with high levels of some of the same synthetic industrial chemicals that researchers have found in people.

Working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Environmental Working Group (EWG) studied 20 dogs and 40 cats. The researchers discovered that the animals were contaminated with 48 of 70 industrial chemicals tested. Average levels of many chemicals were substantially higher in companion animals than is proportionally typical for people, with 2.4 times higher levels of stain-and grease-proof coatings (perfluorochemicals) in dogs, 23 times more fire retardants (PBDEs) in cats, and more than 5 times the amounts of mercury, compared to the average levels the CDC and EWG found in the people they studied.

How do our pets get exposed to these toxins? They walk across lawns that harbor pesticide residues. They breathe in indoor air pollutants. They lie on furniture or carpeting that's been treated with fire retardants. Pets play close to the floor, often licking the ground as well as their paws, a habit that greatly increases both their exposures to chemicals and the resulting health risks. And because their lifespans are compressed - dogs develop and age seven or more times faster than children -- pets also develop health problems more rapidly.

For pets as for people, the result of seemingly harmless actions is a body burden of complex mixtures of industrial chemicals never tested for safety. Health problems in pets span high rates of cancer in dogs and, as with my Midnight, skyrocketing incidence of hyperthyroidism in cats.

How can you protect your pet?

� Avoid lawn chemicals. Stick to organic fertilizers if you maintain grass. Keep your pet off lawns that have been chemically treated. Replace your own lawn with native grasses, stones, and other groundcovers that require nothing other than local climate conditions to grow.

� Eliminate products that pollute indoor air. Replace aerosol air fresheners and fragrance-based cleansers with fragrance-free options. Substitute non-toxic bug repellents for chemical pesticides. Open windows to air out rooms. Simmer cinnamon sticks and cloves in a small pot of water to refresh your home.

� Clean furniture and carpets with vegetable- based soap and water. Avoid industrial- strength floor cleaners whose left-behind 'shine' contains chemicals that could compromise your pet's health. Ask professional carpet cleaners to use certified eco-friendly cleaning products.

� Buy an organic cotton towel or throw rug for your pet's bed and for your furniture. Protect your pet from the fire retardants found in most upholstery and carpeting with organic fabrics you can launder in biodegradable detergent.

� Choose safer toys. Muttropolis sells toy flowers for cats made from recycled plastic and certified organic catnip. The Big Bad Woof right in my own neighborhood offers canine toys made with organic cotton and bridle leather tanned using vegetable oils. I can testify that these diversions are so durable, they have withstood hours of chewing from my own pooch - a 75-pound mutt whose strong jaws could probably pry open a can of tuna if she put her teeth to it!


Don't forget, to pass this information along to a friend, just click on the Forward button right below my signature.

Talk to you again soon,

Diane's Photo
Diane MacEachern
Big Green Purse

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